


Love Is

by Raaj



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bravely Default Spoilers, F/M, Second person POV, a bit experimental
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 10:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10463097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raaj/pseuds/Raaj
Summary: It's not always beautiful, but it's there.





	

Love doesn’t always feel beautiful.  
  
Sometimes love feels like an elephant sitting on your chest after seeing that your childhood friend, the same one you thought didn’t really care about you because it was more important to suck up to Father, never once stopped thinking of you and would completely fall apart in the event of your death.  (You get to see it happen to an alternate him, because that ‘you’ died.  Traveling to other worlds: another thing that sounds a lot better than it really is.)  
  
Love makes you feel like the worst person after you ignore the elephant on your chest and the tears on your face and go to sleep, because then you don’t hear one of your friends screaming until Agnès is shaking you awake terrified because yes, he’s screaming, yes, he’s screaming _your name_ , but you didn’t hear because you could sleep through the moon crashing to the earth!  
  
Love is striding through the hallway as quickly and quietly as possible while hating yourself because you should have realized he would be hurt worse, another alternate of your childhood friend who would fall apart and already has, that’s why he lost his memories–but no matter how much Master Kamiizumi tried to drill it into you, you’ve always been terrible at looking at the big picture, the entire situation.  If you were better at it, you would have anticipated this and so many other things.  
  
Love says to suck it up, because if you’re terrible at taking care of your people now, you owe it to them to be better and you will only get better by _doing_.  
  
Love is the look in his eyes when you burst into the room and dart to his side, like you are the only thing that has ever mattered; Tiz instantly shifts away to give the both of you space. Love is in the grasping of his arms, needy and desperate and reaching, even after they close around you, for the one he lost.  
  
You aren’t her.  
  
But…love, of all things, is not black and white. Not right or wrong.  
  
He knows who you are in the day. Love says you can forgive him the nights.  
  
Love is not so giving in other matters. Love is hate for the things that have hurt him, and along with gentler reassurances, you promise to him–a vow on Ise-no-Kami, so he knows you mean it–that the moment he remembers what monster hurt him so, took his first love and his memory and nearly his whole self, you will hunt the creature down.  
  
Love demands it.  
  
He murmurs an apology about still not remembering, still being broken, and you tell him to shut up about being anything less than perfect–perfectly obnoxious, that is–and you know he’s remembered you and not an angel by the smile that gets. You both lie down in bed, because you know he’ll need company for the rest of the night, and it’s not too uncomfortable. Love is familiarity.  
  
You tell him one last time that killing the monster is a standing promise. You’re going to do it. The moment you can find it, you’re going to enjoy making sure that twisted beast can never harm him or anyone else you love ever again.  
  
Love isn’t always beautiful. That’s for the best. Sometimes it can be as pretty as a ballgown, and sometimes it needs to be hard and sharp, the sword and shield you take into battle.

**Author's Note:**

> See also: a small headcanon about why Edea wasn't explicitly included in Ringabel telling the others about Airy. He 100% knows she would go fight Airy. It's a terrifying thought.


End file.
